This invention was the subject matter of Document Disclosure Program Registration No. 184927, which was filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 22, 1988.
One of the most pressing problems associated with nursing home day to day operations is the time and effort expended by the nursing home staff in checking on the activity patterns of the residents of the home.
When serving the needs of aged and infirm residents it is imperative that the staff be aware of whether or not an individual has left the confines of his room during a given period of time. On those occasions when there has been an extended or unusual period of inactivity on the occupant of a room; it is both advisable and often times necessary and crucial that the staff be aware of this situation, so that they may inquire as to the condition of the resident's health or state of mind.
All too often a resident's inability or failure to open the door of his room is indicative of a serious or life threatening situation; and the staff must be constantly aware of whether or not a resident's door has been opened, without the need of checking every room on a continual basis to verify the presence, absence, or condition of the occupant.
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,040,381, 4,414,912; 4,067,289; and 3,516,036 the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse audio and visual indicators that signal whether or not a door has been opened. However, these prior art signaling devices are employed for a variety of uses not necessarily restricted simply to the lack of activity of a room occupant. In addition, most of the aforementioned signaling devices would be ill-suited to the particular area of concern of the present invention, with the possible exception of the Keogh, Sr. et al. patent which operates on the same basic principles, yet a different orientation than that employed in the construction and operation of this invention.
Furthermore, all of the above cited patents are uniformly deficient for the door monitoring purposes set forth herein; in that, these devices do not allow the signaling mechanism to be present regardless of whether the door is open or closed; wherein, the closure of the door operatively engages the pre-set mechanism into a signal engaged mode, whereby the subsequent opening of the door will automatically allow the signal element to drop by gravity into the door opened signal mode.